Notes of a Sermon Preached by the Rev. C. E. Darwent M. A. in Union Church, Tientsin, Sunday evening, January 22
Teat: Hebrews I. 12. And as a mantle shalt thou roll them up; As a garment, and they shall be changed; But thou art the same; And thy years shall not fail."
Whoever it was who wrote this Epistle—whether Paul, or Apollos, or Priscilla,—there can no doubt, that it was written to confirm the faith of scattered Hebrew Christians. We are apt to think that our own times are the first! to be times of unsettled faith, andj to deplore them in consequence. But this only reveals our blank! ignorance of the past.
The faith has always to adjust itself to the times. If it does not it suffers. This writer describes the revelations of the past. They came in "sundry times and divers manners." We may fairly sum that up by saying, that he describes the revelations of the past as in patches. There was a little to Abraham, more to David and to the prophets. Nay, some of the most wonderful truths were revealed to quite unimportant people, and to outside people like Balaam.
It is not easy to gather them all together into a unity. Think of it in this way. Historians are always trying to trace the development of English liberty. It is not easy. You have to start with King Alfred 1,000 years ago. Not easy. And the Old Testament covers a period of 2,000 years. It is all
bound, all the books together, wit! very well for us to have it nicely old Cruden's Concordance to help our wretched memories to find texts, and piece them together. The revelation did not come all together to the people that received it. No wonder they misunderstood a great deal of it. It was like a picture cut up_ into 20 pieces, all hung up in different places on the walls of a room, and you are asked to give your judge ment on it. Not easy to keep the section together in your mind.
Now this writer says, that happily this has ended. God has focussed the whole truth as to all, that concerns the relations of God aod man in His Son, Jesus Christ "Unto which of the angels said He at any time: 'Thou art my Son.' "This day have I- begotten The angels have a high enough dignity. He maketh his angels winds and His ministers a flame of fire; but of the Son He saith. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever All the scattered and patched} rays of light are gathered up in! this One glorious person, Jesus} Christ. What a mercy for us! Instead of the rays of divine light being scattered and giving a blurred picture of the divine, they are focussed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.